A female basketball coach’s juggling between work and family

“I overslept with my daughter in the same bed and had a brunch. Now, I’m going to take her to a doctor`s office due to a sore throat.” She sounded happy over the phone like any other mom. It was hard to believe that she was the same person who shouted to her players at a bench in a basketball court the previous day.

She is Chun Joo-won, 41, coach of the Woori Bank Hansae, a women’s professional basketball team. She got a day off after defeating the Shinhan Bank S-birds in the opening match in Chuncheon on Sunday. She led her team to claim the championship last season. In three weeks, she met Su-bin, her nine-year-old daughter who is a third grader at an elementary school, at her home in Guui, Gwangjin district, Seoul, at around 11 p.m. Chun said, “She waited for me without sleeping. It was really good because she didn’t have to go to school because she had no class on Monday for a school recruitment event.”

It takes less than 20 minutes by car from her home to her team’s stadium, which is located in Seongbuk district, Seoul, barring any traffic jam. Chun said, “A coach cannot go home alone when players stay in a camp training. I felt more responsibility this season because Coach Wi Seong-woo took the helm of the team.” Balancing work and family is not easy for her, either. She said, “It’s heartbreaking to say no when my daughter wants me to come to a school event or to hear that she cries alone at home when she wants to see me. Fortunately, she has grown a lot and understands me now. When my father-in-law told Su-bin to see her mom and dad last weekend, she said she can’t because her mom would be busy.”

As Chun can barely go home during a season, her mother-in-law who lives in a five minute distance on foot from her home takes care of her daughter. Chun said, “I don’t expect to get a favor for being a mom. I am one of the coaches. I used be the only woman coach but now we have five female coaches, which makes me much relieved.”

Chun, who got married in 1998, is famous for having played at an international match when she was pregnant in 2003. Her little finger was broken while teaching her players before a season. Her birthday is this Friday but it means nothing to her because she has a match on that day. She said, “It’s not easy to have a day off because there are many games on weekends. When could I see my daughter again after saying goodbye tonight…”